ABSTRACT
If the performances of governments in India were measured in relation to their public pronouncements or legislation passed, then India would probably rank among first world states. Fortunately, as most hardened observers of Indian politics know only too well, there is a vast chasm between official public policy pronouncements and their effectiveness (Weiner 1990; Echeverri-Gent 1993; Jenkins 1999). Seminal analyses of comparative public policy formulation (e.g. Smith 1973) suggest that governments in developing countries have a tendency to formulate broad, sweeping policies. However, governmental bureaucracies in these countries often lack the capacity for the implementation of such idealized policies. Examined from this perspective, interest groups, opposition parties, and affected individuals and groups often attempt to influence the implementation of policy rather than the formulation of policy. In a large, diverse federal country such as India – in which the main agent of executive action is often the state government – it is not always policies or legislation that makes the difference between governments, but their implementation. This gap, between policy and implementation, between passing legislation nationally and seeing it executed at the local level, is a little understood black box in Indian public policy.
